Saudi Arabia eye stake in US$30 billion Indian cricket league

NEW DELHI – Saudi Arabia has expressed interest in buying a multi-billion-dollar stake in the Indian Premier League (IPL), international cricket’s most lucrative event, following a string of investments that have upended professional sports, including football and golf.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s advisers have sounded out Indian government officials about moving the IPL into a holding company valued at as much as US$30 billion (S$40.6 billion), in which Saudi Arabia would then take a significant stake, people familiar with the matter said.

The talks were held when the kingdom’s de facto ruler visited India in September, the people said, asking not to be named as the information is not public.

Under plans discussed at the time, the kingdom proposed investing as much as US$5 billion in the league and helping to lead an expansion into other countries, similar to the English Premier League or the Champions League, the people said. 

While the Saudi government is keen to press on with a deal, the Indian government and the country’s powerful but opaque cricket regulator – Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) – are likely to take a call on the proposal after 2024’s federal elections, the people said.

The BCCI secretary is Jay Shah, the son of India’s Home Minister Amit Shah – a close ally of Premier Narendra Modi.

Saudi Arabia’s powerful sovereign wealth fund, which has anchored many of the kingdom’s previous sports investments, could ultimately be the vehicle used to do a deal with the BCCI, if an agreement is reached. No final decisions have yet been made.

Representatives for the BCCI and the Saudi government’s Centre for International Communication did not respond to requests for comment. The Public Investment Fund declined to comment.

Since its inception in 2008, the IPL has married American-style marketing with the glitz of Bollywood and the energy of India’s vast population.

The IPL’s central strategic move was to discard cricket’s traditional format for broadcast-friendly three or four hour games that encourage big, risky swings and frequent “sixes”, cricket’s equivalent of a home run.

The league has drawn a plethora of sponsors, including Aramco and the Saudi tourism authority. And despite a season that runs for just eight weeks each spring, bidders last year paid US$6.2 billion for the right to broadcast IPL games through 2027.

That works out to US$15.1 million per match, more than the Premier League and just behind the US$17 million networks pay for each game in the National Football League in the United States. 

Any Saudi investment in the IPL or changes to the league’s format will likely mean those agreements for media rights will need to be reworked, according to those familiar with the matter.

Over the past few years, Saudi Arabia has splashed out billions of dollars on sports and the chairman of the sport’s governing body in the kingdom has said he wants to turn the nation into a global cricketing destination.

“You can’t compete with money, especially the money that Saudi Arabia is throwing around to certain people,” England cricket captain and one of the world’s top players, Ben Stokes, said in a 2023 interview. BLOOMBERG